Alumna receives Fulbright fellowship to do research in Canada

Rice alumna Grace Nosek ’10 was awarded a fellowship from Fulbright Canada to conduct research this fall.

She is one of 10 recipients of the 2014-15 American Fulbright Students Awards, which are intended for American citizens who are graduate students, prospective graduate students or promising young professionals who wish to study and/or conduct research in Canada. The award covers housing, travel and academic expenditures for one year.

Grace Nosek

Nosek is currently at the University of Victoria working on “An Examination of Public Participation in Government Review of Energy Pipeline Proposals.” For this research, she is conducting a comparative study into how governments in Canada and America can ensure citizen participation in energy infrastructure decisions. The research project will include a comprehensive review of the legal and regulatory regimes surrounding pipeline approval. Chris Tollefson, a
professor at the University of Victoria’s Environmental Law Centre, is supervising the project.

Nosek, from New Jersey, graduated from Harvard Law School cum laude in May. She has a B.A. in French and policy studies from Rice, magna cum laude. “My time at Rice definitely inspired some of my environmental pursuits,” she said.

While at Harvard, Nosek co-authored a comprehensive policy report titled “The Dating Game: How Confusing Food Date Labels Lead to Food Waste in America.” She was recently named to Business Insider’s list of “The 21 Most Impressive Students at Harvard Law School Right Now.” She has complemented her education through internships at the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the White House Council on Environmental Quality. To supplement her legal and policy research and advocacy, Nosek wrote a young-adult novel, “Ava of the Gaia,” the first in a series of environmentally themed books.

U.S. President Harry Truman enacted legislation authorizing the international scholarship program bearing the name of Sen. J. William Fulbright in 1946. The Fulbright program has become the gold standard in academic exchange and a leader in public diplomacy. The Foundation for Educational Exchange between Canada and the United States of America, aka Fulbright Canada, has a mandate to identify the best and brightest minds in both countries and engage them in residential academic exchange and enhance mutual understanding between the people of both countries.